Boris Johnson vows to get U.K. back to normal next year

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised more generous home loans for millions of young first-time buyers as he vowed to use the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to reshape the economy for the better.

The premier said his government is working to get the country “back to normal” by this time next year after the pandemic disrupted daily life and stalled the economy.

Speaking to his Conservative Party’s annual conference, being held online this year, Johnson set out his key policy priorities, including a new pledge for young, first-time buyers to be able to access 95% loan to value mortgages.

“We will help turn generation rent into generation buy,” he said. “We believe this policy could create 2 million more owner occupiers.”

Johnson’s speech is a key chance for him to reset his government’s agenda after months of growing criticism over his handling of the pandemic. He said he believes “normal” life will be back within a year, in time for the party’s conference in October 2021.

“Your government is working night and day to repel this virus and we will succeed just as this country has seen off every alien invader for the last thousand years,” Johnson said. “The next time we meet it will be face to face, cheek by jowl.”

The premier said the government will use the crisis to overhaul the economy and level up opportunity. “After all we’ve been through, it isn’t enough just to go back to normal. We’ve lost too much. We’ve mourned too many.”

Policies he outlined included:

• Long term fixed mortgages of as much as 95% loan to value for young, first time buyers
• A major investment in green energy to make the U.K. a global leader in wind power
• Reforming care home funding
• Intensive one-to-one teaching for children

Johnson made little comment on Brexit in his speech, with the U.K. due to quit the EU’s single market and customs union at year-end while a trade agreement with the bloc is in the balance. He said Brexit would bring an “excitement and verve” to Britain when it is able to sign new trade accords with other countries and control its laws and borders, but the subject only got a brief mention in the 27-minute speech.

Johnson also said he wanted to boost the U.K.’s economic growth and productivity, which he said had been let down by a lack of investment in skills and infrastructure. He reiterated the party’s manifesto pledges to build more hospitals and tackle crime, and stressed that it was the role of the private sector, not the state, to lead Britain’s economic recovery.

In his remarks Johnson denied reports that he is physically unwell after contracting Covid-19 in March and insisted he took no pleasure in curtailing liberty or making huge state interventions in the economy.

“Rishi Sunak the Chancellor has come up with some brilliant expedients to help business to protect jobs and livelihoods—but let’s face it, he has done things that no Conservative chancellor would have wanted to do except in times of war or disaster,” Johnson said.

“This government has been forced by the pandemic into erosions of liberty that we deeply regret, and to an expansion of the role of the state – from lockdown enforcement to the many bail-outs and subsidies – that go against our instincts, but we accept them because there is simply no reasonable alternative.”